Martine Rothblatt

Published Articles

Cybernetics may very well offer a means for expanding the human being.

Dr. Rothblatt graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1981, Summa Cum Laude. She earned her J.D. and MBA degrees from the UCLA Schools of Law and Management, respectively, and her Ph.D. in Medical Ethics from the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary College, University of London. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Martine created two satellite communications industries, long-distance vehicle tracking and digital radio broadcasting. She established these industries first by leading the efforts to persuade the U.S. FCC and the global International Telecommunication Union to adopt new laws that shifted radio frequencies and space orbits to these uses from other uses. She then led the first vehicle tracking company (Geostar), sold the first GPS tracking systems for urban mass transit systems (Humminbird), and both started and led the first satellite radio companies for the U.S. (Sirius) and the developing countries (WorldSpace). In addition, the worldﾒs largest satellite system, PanAmSat, had its genesis in her MBA thesis of that name. Dr. Rothblatt presented the PanAmSat business plan to Hughes Aircraft Company and to Spanish International Network, with the latter adopting it and retaining her to write its precedent-setting FCC application as the first non-governmental transborder satellite system.

In 1996 she founded a new biotechnology company, United Therapeutics, which subsequently became the fastest growing company in the Washington DC area. As Chairman & CEO of United, she has led the efforts to bring new medicines through development and regulatory approval for pulmonary arterial hypertension (Remodulin) and into advanced clinical trials for ovarian cancer (Ovarex). A branch of United operates a nationwide telemedicine network as well as provides the cardiac monitoring equipment used aboard the International Space Station. In order to help pave the way for new gene therapies to treat unmet medical needs, Dr. Rothblatt also led the International Bar Associationﾒs successful 1998 effort to draft a Human Genome Treaty for the United Nations.